September i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



205 



straw, and oats by barley meal mixed with mutton suet. 

 For maladies, bleedings, change of diet, and felt-applic- 

 ations boiled in salt water, and for cuts, washing the 

 wound, and at uight placing a poultice of horse dung, 

 mixed in warm water, lu the morning, another careful 

 washing and dusting over with the ashes of burnt felt. 

 lu twenty-four hours cicatrisation will ensue. Turkoman 

 horses have no manes owing to the covering cloths em- 

 ployed, or they ai-e cut down, so that a top kuot only is 

 left on the head. They have no bits, but a thin biidle, 

 neither whip nor spur is employed ; the reins are left 

 loose; the horse cau do 40 to 100 miles in a day of 20 

 or 24 hours. 



Belgium is generally cited as the headquarters of crop- 

 rotating. Putting aside all theories, no hard and fast 

 rule cau be fixed on the subject, as each country is in- 

 fluenced by dissimilar circumstances. The greater the 

 variety of crops, the less the cultivator mil be at the 

 mercy of market fluctuations. Till aud manure the soil 

 elEcicutly, which, while ever producing, will at the same 

 time become ameliorated. Asparagus cauuot be grown on 

 the same ground after fifteen years, yet the soil is ex- 

 tremely rich for any other plant. The Heliauthus will 

 kill every strawberry plant for a large distance within 

 its reach. 'WhyV — we do not know. The advantage of 

 rotating crops is admitted, but local circumstances ought 

 to dictate the details of the rotation. Never allow two 

 crops of the same kind to follow successively, fall back 

 on a cleansing crop that permit the land to be weeded 

 and dispense with fallowing. 



The Vigilance Committee of Ganized, at Lyons, to 

 watch the invasion of the phylloxera has centraUzed the 

 reports of 276 sub-committees, operating over an area of 

 19,000 acres. The conclusions drawn are as follows : — 

 Sulphuret of carbon gives only good results when the 

 arable soil is less than 12 inches in depth, or when it 

 is so argilaceous, as to become compact, or when the 

 sub-soil is impervious. In the first case, the diffusion of 

 the carburet is too rapid ; in the second, too ditficidt. 

 Further, all the vines should be treated from the first 

 appearance of the disease not separately but collectively ; 

 apply doses of ^ to f of an ounce per square yard, and 

 never more make the injections between the vines, but 

 never touching the latter, aud close up well the holes, 

 do not apply it when the sap is in its upward or 

 downward movement. Manure suitably; the holes are nut 

 to be more than from I) to 8 inches deep. The same 

 committee has established schools to teach how to graft 

 vines, and purchases all fertihzers, 8cc., for vineyards, 

 direct from from the manufacturer. 



Near Castres ( Tarn ), an epidemic has broken out 

 among ducks, caused by their feeding on the leaves of 

 tba Ailantus Glodulosa, or Japanese lacquer. The juice of 

 this plant is very burning, and pi-oduces ir.flammation 

 of the digestive organs, ending in death. 



M. de \'ilmorin was in the habit of raising wheat by 

 selecting the best grains, and the latter from the most 

 robust ears. He found this plan de'ective ; better to select 

 from an entire plant, which presents the greatest regular- 

 ity in point of growth, uniformity in stooliug, and 

 equality m height of stems. Thin sowings are essential 

 to obtain these. 



Roscotf, near Morlaix, is a celebrated colony of kit- 

 chen gardeners, who send their products not only to 

 Paris, but to England, Denmark and Eussia. It may 

 truly be said, that it was man, not nature, made there 

 the soil. Two centuries ago, only onions were cultivated ! 

 the rocks or stones were converted into artificial soil, 

 by application of seaweed, sea sand rich in animalcules, 

 and manure. The seaweed proved not only a dissolv- 

 ant but a stimulant, and kept the dry and scanty 

 earth humid; the sand prevented the clay from be- 

 coming compact and hard. All the gardens, varying in 

 extent trom one-half to leu acres, are cultivated with 

 the spade. Two men are considered sufficient to man- 

 age an acre. The rotation is onions, carrots, parsnips 

 aud broccoli or caulitlower, not only during the samj 

 year, but on the same gmunls ; by means of simultan- 

 eous and catch crops, and having recourse to nursery 

 beds, four crops are obtained from the same plot. 

 Leeks, a^paragus, garlic and cabbage, are also extremely 

 Bjsed. The artichokes of Eoscolf «re celebrated: one 



stem contains often 25 to 80 heads. Land has risen ia 

 value three-hundred-fold within the last forty years, 

 and the cultivation keeps pace with the times, as the 

 conscripts, after serving their period under the flag, bring 

 back with them new ideas and fresh experience from 

 the countries in which they have been quartered. 



It is likely that agriculture will be the earliest 

 in the field to reap the advantages from the new Congo 

 Colonies. The copra cake is becoming a necessity for 

 cattle feeding on the Contineut, and two companies 

 are in the course of formation, to make plantatious in 

 Belgium aud French Congo, for the eultuio of coconut 

 trees. 



Lime is a specially valuable agent in French farming. 

 Inquiries have been instituted, to poll as it were, French 

 ag-riculturists, as to their views ou that substance. The 

 replies have been summarized as bearing on the physical 

 and chemical action of lime on soils. The explications 

 of science are not quite satisfactory so far. Addeil to 

 clay lands, lime opeus aud renders them more friable, 

 permitting in dry seasons the moisture to ascend and 

 bathe the parched soil, while preventing fissures and all 

 caking chemically, lime induces decay in organic matters 

 ditficult to be decomposed, transforming them into 

 assimilable food. Perhajjs, it facilitates the liberation of 

 potash in clays. In the form of carbonate it favors the 

 process of nitrification, but not so powerfully as in the 

 sulijhate state. Quicklime acts contrarily. 



A mixture of lime aud manure is held by very many 

 to be inimical, as it expels the ammonia. But some, 

 remembering that azote exists in three states in manure, 

 aud in that primarUy of assimilable nitric acid, whose 

 formation lime promotes such a gain is not to be ignored. 

 Again, lime according to competent authorities, renders 

 also phosporic acid assimilable. Swiss scientists hold lime 

 is necessary in the soil to induce the action of potash. On 

 peaty laud, lime corrects acidity; in this case it should 

 be applied in the quick form. For meadow top- 

 dressing lime must ever be aijplied in the compost 

 state ; if farm yard manure be ailded, the earth and lime 

 ingredients are mixed apart some time previously. The 

 pasturages of Normandy attest the excellence of this 

 fertilizing agent. In the case of tired land, lime should 

 be applied in small and repeated doses. 



M. PoUet prepares an excellent compost, aud which 

 doubles the yield of hay on natural meadow by mixing 

 chaff, barn refuse, aud cut straw, with phosphates, wet- 

 ting the mass and so induciug fermentation. Analysis 

 showed it was three times richer than the best farm- 

 yard manure, and costs him about Ij fr. per cubic yard. 

 In Switzerland, superjjho.sphate aud sulphate of ammonia 

 are the chief fertilizers for grass lands, and where the 

 first plays the leading part. Strange, chloride of pot- 

 assium if mixed with these is injurious biit relatively 

 excellent when applied alone. 



In Germany, sugar beet .after being pulled, is allowed 

 to lie three days on the field. The leaves in fading are 

 suid to return their potash to the bulb, and as the jjotash 

 is popularly held to produce the sugar, hence the ex- 

 planation, why this practice adds to the saccharine 

 richness. 



r.vnis, July 11. 



Manure is the chief factor in the augmentation of 

 the. produce of the soil. Plants, like animals, draw 

 their food exteriorly, and are admirable apparatuses for 

 the transformation of mineral matters into living sub- 

 stances, plants not possessing like animals, the faculty of 

 locomotion, ought, for their development, to find in "the 

 medium where they live and die — the soil aud atmo- 

 sphere, the aliments indispensable to their existouce. On 

 the quantity of assimilable substances placed within the 

 reach of plants during the period of their growth, will 

 depend the intensity of their development, and conse- 

 quently the richness of the yield. 



Of the twelve or thirteen mineral substances, whose 

 assembly under the influence of life make up the tissue 

 of^plant.s, four or at most five; but in the majority of cases, 

 only three are what the fanner will have to take seriously 

 into account, either to maintain, or increase the fertility 

 of the soil. These three mineral matters are : Nitrogen, 

 potash aud phosphoric acid. Lime and magnesia rarely 



